Raven Tears
by Dontmezwitme
Summary: The story of the North American twins...and their mother.
1. Chapter 1

**Hmmm. I spent months on this story and I'm still not satisfied with the beginning.  
**

**I've finished the entire thing, and I'll update Mondays~ Enjoy~  
**

* * *

_Even if you hate me as long as you live, I shall continue to be proud._

_Even if I die, to have you remember me would be a blessing.  
_

* * *

She had missed three blood moons and exhibited signs-_the_ signs- of children. Her stomach was swelling. There was a definite bump on the place above her womanhood.

Probing it, just as she had so many chieftains' wives, she could feel that familiar sensation. Something was in there.

However, she hadn't done anything-with anyone! She ran wild, and she ran free, but never to this extent. She'd never coupled with a man before. This was impossible. And yet, it was happening. Perhaps the Raven had turned into a pine needle again and snuck into her water. That thought amused her.

She was infinitely thankful that the pregnancy started in winter, lasted through spring and ended in summer; her people thought it was representative of the crops, and so paid it no mind. While she trekked through a north-eastern part of her territory, she felt a sharp pain in her huge, swelling belly. Knowing that there was no tribe around in time, she sought out a cave and gave birth there.

She gasped for breath and tried not to scream. She bit down hard on a piece of wood and felt it start to crack. As the morning turned to afternoon and then waned to evening, and the stars and moon shone down, she heaved out one small wet bundle, and at last she lay back, huffing and panting. But she still wasn't done. Her belly was still inflated. After ten minutes of much less agony and much more relief that it was _finally_ ending, the second baby was in the world.

She had given birth to twins. They looked like her-high cheekbones, beautiful mahogany skin, and raven fuzz on their heads-but their eyes! The younger's purple as violets and the elder's blue as a kingfisher. Two little braves, and she knew somehow that they would be the death of her. She couldn't let a frown or tears cross her face while the twins looked up at her so adoringly. She swaddled them with cloth torn from her bag and her skirt, and fell asleep, the two little ones nuzzled on their mother's chest.

She got up early in the morning and ate of her rations, and let the small ones drink milk in exchange for waking up so early. She'd have to stay here for a time, so that the twins could get accustomed to breathing air. That was what her chieftain's wives did, and so would she. They might be something more than human, but the first day of being alive shouldn't require a journey through forest. Not only that, she was still tired from birthing.

She didn't let the twins out of her sight, and tearing more strips from her tunic and skirt, she fashioned slings so that she could carry both while she foraged for food, and by luck found a river. She managed to catch some fish despite the fact the children were squawling. She took them back, wriggling, and set them down. She fed the two again and laid them down on a blanket. She cooked the fish and the smell of good food silenced the twins again.

The twins, the twins. _I must name them._ She thought. _I cannot simply call them 'the twins'_.

She looked at them carefully. One was bouncy and gurgled and shouted. The other was quieter and moved less. It was impossible to tell their names simply from that.

_I shall call that one Chaska,_ she thought of the loud one,_ and that one Mukki, for now._

She was pleased with her names.

The next day, she decided that she could move through the forest again. If she started out at sun's rising, she could get there by sunhigh. She took both babes in their slings and drew her hunting knife, wary of creatures that might decide to take an easy meal.

She had to pause to feed Chaska and Mukki, however, because they woke up to find themselves hungry. No baby-and no person-likes to wake up hungry.

At long last, after sunhigh had come and gone (she was weaker than she had thought, and needed rest) she finally arrived at the camp. Children came with bright eyes to stare at the newcomer and her two strange bundles, while the chieftain was roused from his longhouse.

"Gaho, it is good for you to come." he said formally, not looking once at the bundles at her sides.

"It is good for me to be here, Chief Onata." she said just as formally back. Then she broke into a smile.

"May I please share a meal? I have given birth just two sunrises ago and have not had time to hunt."

The chieftain nodded, a smile on his face too. "That is good, Gaho. Come to my longhouse."

The women talked amongst themselves and the chieftain's wife Denali took her husband's arm.

"Before Gaho is to eat, perhaps we shall see the babes?" she asked politely.

"Of course. Their true names have not been decided yet, but this one-" she took out the elder's bundle- "Is Chaska. The younger is Mukki."

"Such a strange name, Chaska." mused Denali.

"It comes of a tribe far west from here." Gaho said. Then her stomach growled. Denali laughed.

"Come, let us eat. It is not often you visit us, Gaho." She said teasingly while leading her into the longhouse. She gave her maize and squash and beans and some meat from a bear. Gaho ate well that night, and was drawn into the festivities of the village. She ate and drank and told stories of the Raven who was born as a human and stole the sun and moon and stars from the Gray Eagle, and the wise Turtle, and others that she heard from her other tribes. She captivated the children long after the adults had lost interest and told story after story for them, while keeping her own in her lap.

Finally, a small one asked a question. "Why is everyone call you Gaho?"

She smiled. "Because I am mother to you all."

The little one frowned. "That's not an answer. My mother is right over there." he pointed.

The woman he pointed to looked quizzically at Gaho, who shrugged.

"I am the land beneath your feet. I am the sky above your heads. I am the trees that you climb. I am the rivers that are with fish. I am all these things. But I appear as a human."

The children looked at her with wide, wide eyes. They didn't doubt her for a second-how could someone with such old, old eyes look so young? She looked only twenty summers, and yet she talked and was treated like the oldest of elders.

They were only spellbound for a moment. Then they pressed her with stories from the old, old times, when _she_ was a little girl. Gaho gave them more stories of when she learned to fish, the first tribes, and the times when the earth shook so much it felt it would clatter to pieces. She also talked of her first memory- glaciers, majestic ice that moved like canoes and were higher than the tallest of trees.

Finally, however, the fire burned low and the children started nodding off. Mothers swooped down to take them into longhouses.

"Gaho, stay in our longhouse." asked Denali.

"No, it is fine. I want Chaska and Mukki to sleep under the stars."

Denali left them and Gaho laid out a skin, and nestled the two babes in. Then she slept in the middle, arms unconsciously making a ring around the two. Her hair splayed out onto the children's faces and there they slept, starlight and moonshine painting pale patterns on their skin.

* * *

After that, Gaho made thanks to the tribe and promised to come again, when the children were braves and maidens. She continued on, to her endless travel around the country. It took many passings of the seasons to go around and through the place, but she had walked the paths since the dawn of time and could do it in her sleep.

She took the summer and autumn months to tramp across the great ice plains and the mountains. She taught Chaska and Mukki the wonders of snow, one time when they were too slow and were snowed in. Mukki's eyes shone to see the snowflakes and somehow she knew that he was destined for the north. She taught them how to blend into the forests unseen and unheard; she taught them how to make snowshoes and tramp lightly across the snow. Gaho taught them how to fish.

Then, the winters and springs she usually spent in the grass plains and the deserts. She painted the stars for them, taught them all the different constellations. She danced on the red sandstone, and told them how to survive in deserts. She howled with the coyotes and they did the same. One time she tried to smooth down their funny tufts of hair with mud and when they washed it out all of the hair on their scalp stood straight up.

She took them to see her sister in the south. Nahuatl was disdainful of her constant wandering and often asked when she would finally settle down make a 'real' nation.

"It is too hard on the little ones to make such a journey." said she, squatting to look at the twins. They were wary of the stranger and hid behind Gaho's legs. Chaska had long since been called Helaku, and Mukki was now Kajika.

"They are Countries. And they are my sons." she said simply.

"Is it not better for you and your children to stay together in one place and have people come to you?" asked Nahuatl.

"No. This way, I can see the sun and stars and the deserts of the south and the snows of the north. This way, I am free."

Nahuatl snorted. She flapped a hand at Gaho and said flippantly "Free or not, it will be my people who outlive yours for they are more organized."

Gaho smiled and hummed a little tune, and went on her way to the center of her lands and then out through the east and the north. It was ten summers before she saw her sister again. This time she was troubled.

"Sister, there are strange creatures that lurk in the water; they have huge canoes with white wings. All of the islands that are south of your shores have been taken."

Gaho looked astonished. She felt a sudden flash of fear as she remembered that only eleven summers hence she had given birth to the twins. Gaho quenched it hurriedly and told Nahuatl that she would go to the point of her land and see if the islands closest to her were infected with these strange pale things.

It was the last time she saw her sister with health in her cheeks and happiness in her eyes, and the troubles that clouded them never went away from that moment.

* * *

**Names-**

**Gaho means Mother. When I looked it up and cross-referenced, the (few) websites didn't say which tribe it came from.**

**Nahuatl is actually the name of a group of dialects that are based in Meso-America.**

**Chaska means eldest son. Mukki just means child.**

**Helaku means 'full of sun', and Kajika means 'walks without sound'.**

**Onata and Denali are both Iroquois names.  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here you go, guys. Next chapter's going to be about...something XD. Oh, and foreshadowing is rampant.**

* * *

Gaho wanted to run as fast as she could to the place, but to conserve her strength for whatever was still there, she walked. Very fast. The twins kept up admirably-Helaku in particular. He was very strong for one who looked two winters old. Kajika she carried from time to time as an unspoken arrangement-she knew that Kajika felt badly for not being as strong or boisterous as his elder brother.

After two days of walking, she felt frustrated. She sought out a tribe and told them curtly that something of great importance had happened and that they needed to take her things. Astounded, they did, and Gaho took the two little ones aside after walking out a few feet from the tribe.

"We are not regular human beings. You two know that," she looked deep into their eyes. They nodded with fear in their eyes. "Eating and drinking is something we can do without. It will make us hungry, but the only time I had felt faint from hunger was when my people are hungry. Well, I was hungry the day after birthing you too, but that was because I needed to build up my fat."

Kajika's eyes were widening and she could see that he already knew what she was going to make them do. Helaku didn't piece it together yet, though.

"Gaho, what are we doing?" he asked.

She smiled grimly. "We are going to run like coyotes are on our heels thirsting for our blood. And we will only take breaks to sleep."

"But I can't run as fast as you two." Kajika whispered softly.

"I will take you on my back. We must make haste!" She scooped up Kajika onto her back and started jogging. Helaku followed, stumpy legs working quicker than a true child's should.

The way was hard. Every day, they would rise with the sun and run until the sun was climbing down towards the horizon. They were not weak from hunger, just like she had predicted; instead they were tired. Usually when they woke up in the mornings, the three could draw strength off the people. Some days they just rested in the same spot, absolutely drained.

The next day after a rest Gaho would run a little faster than usual, to make up for lost time. She alternated twins, as well. Every two days she would take Helaku as her burden and Kajika would be the one pumping his little legs. He tired far more easily then Helaku, but he didn't complain, even when his feet were cut open from nettles.

It took them a little over a moon to get there, and the twins fair collapsed when they finally reached her destination. She didn't make them get up, but instead sought out a tribe closest to the shore.

"What is this? I have heard news of strange canoes that are ashore the islands." she said curtly.

"They are. The tribes there are committing suicide then to bend to their ways." Gaho put a hand to her mouth. The creatures were bad indeed if the tribes on the islands preferred death.

"Are they hooved? Clawed? Beaked? Or with fur, feathers? Wings?" she demanded.

"No. They are men from across the sea, and they came in gigantic canoes."

She reeled, her thoughts going in all directions. Men from across the sea? The sea extended to the end of the world, she'd thought! How could these strange men cross it? With the canoes with white wings? And how badly did those men rule and conquer if they drove tribes to suicide? Surely they did not wish to anger the gods by harming people for no reason!

"There is one more thing." The chief broke in on her thoughts. "These men…their eyes are blue, green, and grey, and their skin pale as the moon. And one had golden hair!"

That made her laugh, finally. It was too fantastical-men from across the sea with moonfaces and blue eyes and sun-hair, with canoes and wings! Things like that were children's stories. She felt a flash of fear, however, when she remembered Helaku's eyes.

"It is true!"

She knew this man. Ten winters hence, she'd gone into the camp and seen him as a young brave. He was a solid, no-nonsense youngling and as a chief was the same. She could ill afford to not believe him. Her merriment subsided.

"If even half of your stories are true, then we cannot make enemies of these things that wear men's faces. Do not go to war with them yet."

"Aye." said the chief. Then he said, "You look hungry, Gaho. Eat, and rest."

She smiled wanly. "Me and my boys have been running non-stop for a moon to get here. We'd enjoy your fish."

Gaho didn't wake the twins, but carried them to the camp. They'd grown little over the past eleven years; she feared they never would.

When she'd laid them on the ground beside a cook-fire, however, they woke up at the smell of cooked fish, which the women gave to them. Kajika swallowed hard, wanting to appear strong, and forced himself to eat slowly, but Helaku had no such qualms. He fell upon the fish hungrily and ate three in the time it took Kajika to eat one. Gaho, like her quiet son, ate neatly and didn't spare a single bit of flesh on the fish. She only ate two. The twins ate nine between them. The children gathered around, curious at these three visitors who were allowed to eat so much.

Gaho paid them no mind, but Helaku held out a fish to one of the children, a girl. Kajika immediately did the same to another. The small ones saw that they were willing to share and soon they were chattering amongst themselves and sitting with the strangers.

"We ran for moons and moons! Almost a season!" boasted Helaku to his captivated audience. "And we were chased by wolves and bears and crocodiles and alligators and-"

"It was hard doing it, but we ran for a moon." Kajika said shyly to a girl not much older than himself. "Gaho was the best though. She carried me and my brother from time to time."

Gaho smiled. This was the first time she'd let her boys talk without her and they seemed to be accepted easily. She rested her back against a tree and closed her eyes, glorying in food and not having to keep moving.

She'd offered to hunt for fish to make up for what the twins had eaten the next day. She was waved aside, laughing.

Afterwards, she doubled back to get her things and continued to go through her terrirories, secure in the fact that her people could survive this threat. They were no island, easily conquered.

Or so she thought.

* * *

When she was scrubbing Helaku and Kajika's skins, she noticed that they were a few shades lighter than her own. She almost panicked, but reminded herself that the dirt of their travels stained them much darker than they normally were, and her own skin was not cleaned yet.

* * *

One day, Kajika wanted to know what the desert looked like.

"Can't you remember?" laughed Gaho.

He looked seriously at her. "No." 


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm posting early, guys.**

**Why?**

**My sis reads the story and she pestered me XD**

**So even though I was going to keep to my schedule of every Monday, I decided to post every three days. Things are speeding up, gents.

* * *

**When the pale-faced man approached her, she kept her younglings close. This was the man who'd as good as murdered her sister. Her sister. She used to be so happy, so light with words. Now she raged in fevers while the bastard beat her to a pulp and stole her gold, did unspeakable things and killed her people. Screams of pain and hatred were all her sister could say now, and curses.

She didn't want her sons to be treated like that. She wouldn't let this man lay a single finger on them.

He said strange things in a language sharp and fast, but the meaning was clear; he gestured to the south, and smiled at her, then pointed at Helaku.

He wanted her child. He would do the same thing to her as he had to her sister if she didn't give him up.

Kajika was atop a white bear that had affixed itself to him a few winters ago in the northlands. He and it were not to be parted and Matoskah could talk, besides. Now she bent low and placed a hand on Helaku's shoulder. She whispered to them both.

"When I leap at him, run and hide. Double back to me. I will hold him."

Helaku looked at his mother and was about to say something, but she shushed him.

"Matoskah, look after my two sons."

The bear nodded. She took Kajika and Helaku into her arms and kissed them both, tears streaming down her cheeks. She slowly straightened and glared at the pale-face. She noted with disgust that his eyes were green like leaves. He wasn't natural. Only devils could do the sorts of things that he did.

Slowly, she made as if to push Helaku forward. Then she sprang at the man and spat in his face, and punched him hard, taking out her dagger and screaming "RUN!" to her children and the bear.

"This is for my sister!" she spat, and was viciously pleased to see that he was completely unprepared for her attack. He fumbled for his sword, but she cut through the belt and the sword and a silver stick fell to the ground. She didn't have time to look back to see if Matoskah was keeping his promise, but instead sliced at the foreigner furiously, snarling and hissing. He danced out of her way, blood dripping from a wound in his arm, leg, face-she lost herself to rage and was brought back when he slammed her against a tree trunk, a knife she had not seen against her throat.

He had cold eyes, she saw. Green ice. He kicked her stomach viciously and she gasped, sinking to the ground and coughing. Pain exploded in white bursts under her eyes.

He said something. She looked at him from watery eyes, still hateful. If he was only going to do that, she could try and look through her haze of pain and-

He kicked her in the ribs with steel-toed boots, and she felt one crack. She lay on the ground, gasping and hacking up blood. She wanted to scream at the agony but she kept silent, knowing that the man would glory in her cries. Tears she couldn't keep back traveled down her cheeks. Black lapped at the edges of her vision, threatening to pull her under.

Uncaringly, he sliced her arm with his knife as if to mark her for later, and marched off to find her children. She clutched her wound and screamed obscenities at the man.

"You'll never find them! They will never be yours! I will kill you before that happens!"she sobbed, and finally succumbed to the blackness.

* * *

When she woke, her boys were with her. They were frightened. Kajika was trying hard not to cry. Her wound was bandaged with their clothes. Matoskah had their back to them, checking for the man.

"My sons…" she whispered. "My sons…"

Helaku's eyes burned. He and Kajika had heard her cries after the man.

"I'll kill him for you. I will." Helaku turned to Kajika. "Won't we?"

Kajika gulped, but nodded. "We'll kill him."

Gaho almost wanted to cry, from pride and despair. Proud of her braves, that they would go and kill this evil man for her. Despair, that they were turned from innocence to hatred so quickly.

* * *

A few weeks after the man had kicked her, and her ribs had healed (she'd always been a fast healer), she was swept away in the night to see a man land on her shores. He strode up to her, another pale man with light brown hair. He seemed to come to an assumption of sorts, and took her hand. He shook it, and walked back to where his men were unloading. Then Gaho was back with her children. Shivering, she lay down beside the boys and decided to say nothing.

* * *

She couldn't traipse around her land anymore. Now she settled Helaku and Kajika down near the north-eastern coast, far from the child-snatching bastard, only to realize that that was where the mysterious man had settled down. But it was either him or the one who'd silenced her sister. The man over there had such a puny slice of territory, so she decided that he wasn't as bloodthirsty as his other palefaced brother. She didn't need to apprehend him yet.

Gaho left the twins alone longer and longer, using her newfound ability to suddenly arrive at her destination, trusting Matoskah to keep them hidden. She tried to contact her tribes and give them hope, but more often she was the one who was beaten down. Diseases spread throughout the places the devil had taken and she was weaker than usual.

It was a few years of relative quiet as the novelty of having a demon in her lands wore off and her rage dulled into a seething hate.

* * *

In time, another came to conquer her lands-a man with blonde hair and even paler than the devil down south. She made the boys stay back at the hideout this time and planted herself in front of him, glaring at the man. She unconsciously rubbed the scar where the demon had sliced her and the motion was not lost on the moonface. He swept to his knees and dramatically caught her hand, placing his lips on it.

She looked blankly at him. What was the meaning of kissing her hand? Did this moonface do it just before he killed someone? Was he going to poison her somehow? Could he possibly want to bite it? She racked her brains trying to think of why in the world a moonface would do that, when he laughed and drew himself up, then opened his mouth to speak.

He had a very smooth, rolling language, she noticed. It was almost melodious. She had a tiny smile on her face as she listened to the lulling tongue-

Then jerked herself back awake. He was a snake. His tongue may be coated in silver but it was still forked, she reminded herself. She pointed firmly back to his canoe with wings.

He sighed, almost saddened, and to her surprise, went back in!

She saw him sail down the river and almost thought that he wasn't as bad as the other palefaces. After all, his eyes were gentler and as blue as the summer sky, just like Helaku.

* * *

She then realized that was wrong. He'd claimed a slab of her land from near the pole all the way down to the part of the land where she had first heard of palefaces, and sent people to live there. He was a bastard, through and through. However, when she went down to see what he had done, she heard that he had battled over the land with the demon and lost.

What worried her was Kajika and Helaku. As the years passed and the silver-tongued one waxed stronger on her lands, they…_changed._

It started with Helaku. His beautiful black hair had a thread of gold running through it. She had dismissed it as wheat and tried to pluck it out, to discover that it was attached to his scalp. He'd yowled and clasped his hand over his hair, and looked up her quizzically.

"What was that for?" he questioned.

"Oh, I thought I saw…never mind." She took his hands off his scalp and kissed where she had tried to pluck out that hateful hair.

"Do you feel any better?" she asked him.

"A little!" he laughed, and kissed her on the cheek and ran off to vault onto Matohska's back. Kajika came silently, as was his way, and tugged on her sleeve.

"What is it little one?" she asked him. He looked up at her with frightened eyes.

"I-I'm scared, Gaho." he whispered. She took him in her arms and smoothed back his hair. It was still black, but his skin was lightening. He buried his face into her neck and grabbed her clothes with his chubby hands.

They hadn't grown yet. Not at all. They were still toddlers. Toddlers that had words of hate slip from their baby lips.

She wanted a different life for them than this.

* * *

**I actually wanted to cry writing this. I feel horrible for making Gaho go through this.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for the short chapter. I'll post another one tomorrow. It was going to be longer, but I realized that the next bits are important and you guys need to read that without this cluttering it.**

**But yeah. It's ending in about *counts* three chapters. Peace out! This is the last chapter with any history! Now I'm just BS'ing!  


* * *

**Soon the silver-tongued one was stirring up her lands. He had a firm foothold on her land now, after she'd tried desperately to destroy everything he'd erected. He'd founded a city- Quebec, that was what he called it- and now he'd allied himself with some of her tribes. He'd even seen Kajika. He called Kajika by a different name. _Canada._ He still didn't have Kajika. All he did was trade with her people.

Gaho had no choice but to accept it. She had some of her people learn the language so that she could understand what he said. They learned and said that his official (official? That reminded her of her sister, and it ached) name was France. His given name was Francis.

That confused her. This, this France, had two names? What was the purpose?

She decided to talk to this France.

* * *

When they met again, face-to-face, she made sure yet again that her boys were hiding. If France stole one of them, she knew instinctively that the land would be his forever.

Her poor boys. Helaku's strange transformation seemed to have stopped, but now Kajika was almost entirely pale and his hair was already changing.

* * *

"Who is this demon who terrorizes my lands and my sister to the south?" she demanded first. The translator got an answer from him, and France's face was darkened as if by memory.

"Gaho, he says the demon is named _Espagne_. He is not usually a demon. He has two faces; a bright and sunny one that is gentle, and one that is the demon you saw."

"Ask him what has happened to my children to the south."

The translator-Hassun, she remembered-looked scared. "But, Gaho, can you not go-"

"No. He blocks me." she fingered her ribs-scars crossed it when his iron-toed boots had cut- and counted herself lucky that the man only broke one at a time, and did not actively seek her out. She also traced the scar that crossed her arm.

France noticed the motion and surmised that _Espagne_ had cut her and at least bruised her in the ribs. These people might have been savages, but what _Espagne_ was doing in the south put a bitter taste in his mouth.

"_Qu'est-qu'elle a dit?_" he asked.

Kes kelladi? What could that mean? wondered Gaho. The translator started talking to France in his language.

He talked back.

She sat there confused at the exchange of gibberish.

"He wanted to know what you said. He also wants to know who Canada is."

Gaho sucked in her breath. "I know of no such Canada." she said fearfully. When the man's eyes darkened at her answer, she pushed away from the table and spoke to him with flashing eyes.

"I do not care what you do-you will trade, bargain, I do not care. But if you lay a finger on my people, I will tear you limb from limb."

She ran out of the room, the strange cries of France following her, all the way to the hiding place. She buried her face into the hair of her boys, and simply stayed that way.


	5. Chapter 5

"Gaho?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine."

"No,wait- Kajika can't remember that big canyon. You know, right? The one that was so big that thousands of canoes could stack up there!" Gaho bit her lip worriedly.

His skin turning pale and purple eyes could be explained away, but to forget things was bad. He stared up at her with tears swimming in said eyes, and clung to Matoskah.

"Gaho…I don't want to forget things." Kajika whimpered.

She was at a loss for words, and sat against an old tree. Kajika crawled onto her lap like when he was little (he was _still_ little, she realized with a jolt) and buried his face into her skirts. Helaku did the same, both twins bawling their eyes out at the fear they subjected themselves to, every time Gaho had to go and try to make contact with tribes but coming back with fresh scars and bruises. They cried for Kajika's loss of memory.

But most of all, they cried because they were still too young to know what else to do.

* * *

The younger twin continued to lose memories. He forgot the great sandy red deserts, the pleasant lap of water against the shores of beaches, and he forgot the rippling grass plains.

"Gaho, why are you hurt?" he asked once, big eyes wide at her wounds.

"It's that demon, sucking my lands dry." she spat.

"Who is that demon?" he asked.

"He's…" she was at a loss for words. Helaku impatiently nudged his twin.

"The one who tried to take me away! And then Matoskah hid us and-"

Kajika looked sad. "I can't remember."

* * *

"Gaho, Gaho!" She turned. Kajika was there. His skin was pale. His eyes were purple. His hair was blond. He was followed by the bear.

"I can understand France!" he said excitedly. "Did I used to know him?"

Dread.

Hurt.

Gaho was struck by these two emotions. Kajika wasn't hers. Not anymore. He was France's. That was why he lost memories. His lands were claimed and so he must reform.

Soon, he would not remember her. He'd look at her and say things like _kes kelladi_ and stare with uncaring eyes at her with incomprehension when she talked to her.

She had to do something before then.

She had to.

* * *

Gaho went into the town. She purchased a fine white nightgown for a child and a pink ribbon and something else that Kajika interpreted as a loincloth, only for children. It was poofy and white.

She dressed Kajika in these things.

He asked why.

She couldn't say anything.

* * *

"Don't let him forget. When the time is right, bring him back to me." whispered Gaho.

Matoskah nodded.

France walked through the snow to his wooden shack. He was amazed at how much game he was able to procure on one hunting expedition.

Then he came across a small bear.

The white bear was sitting squarely in front of him, beady black eyes trained on his face. When he tried to go out of its way, it shifted until it blocked his path again. France decided to step over him. It was tiny, right?

The bear didn't do anything up until he stretched a leg over his head. Then he sprang for his boot, sending France sprawling into the snow.

When he rolled over, intending to give the bear cub a what-for, he saw the bear sitting serenely in front of his nose. It blinked innocently at him.

That did it.

France shed all his kills and took off running after the bear, which had wised up and tried to flee. France stumbled and thrashed his way through the thick snow and weaved around pines, hell-bent on teaching a small bear that no-one duped the great France.

As soon as he pieced together why he was chasing a polar bear, Francis concluded that spending time alone was turning him stir-crazy.

Matoskah led the moonface through countless trees and plains and doubling back, giving Gaho and Helaku enough time to say goodbye to Kajika.

* * *

Faced with Kajika-this transformed Kajika- she was at a loss for words. She knew it was only a few minutes before Matoskah made it here. She wanted to impart all her love and wisdom and motherliness in a few minutes when it should've been over centuries.

In the end, she cradled his small head in her hands and kissed his smooth white brow.

"Goodbye." She whispered, wrapping her arms around the boy in the last embrace she'd ever have with him. Helaku joined in, crying. He touched foreheads with Kajika, and they both seemed to say something in the brief moment their eyes met.

"Goodbye." choked out Helaku.

"_Au revoir._" Kajika said. Two words that stuck in Helaku and Gaho's hearts, hurting.

"Do you still know who we are?" asked Gaho softly. She pulled away and placed her hands on Helaku's shoulders.

Canada tipped his head to one side quizzically. "_Désolée. Je ne comprend pas._"

* * *

Matoskah burst into the clearing, and scanned the area. No sign of Gaho and her son. Then he ran to Canada's side, and nuzzled his nose with the boy's.

Canada giggled. He buried his face into his soft white fur and climbed onto his back.

France barreled into the clearing.

"Where are you, you stupid bear?" France gritted his teeth. Said bear stepped out of the shadows, the boy on his back.

France was dumbfounded.

"_Canada?_" he said incredulously. Here was the boy that he'd seen a few years ago, but then he'd been significantly darker, and had black hair. Now…now…

The child shivered from the cold. France wasn't new to the 'raising children' thing, and he immediately scooped up Canada.

Upon closer inspection, he saw that the boy's lips were blue with cold.

He started to run.

* * *

Gaho watched silently as France ran into his wooden shack and let Matoskah in. Helaku, still red-eyed, was in her arms and he turned away from the shack.

"Don't let me become that." he sniffled into her ear.

"I won't."

She turned and walked away.

* * *

**This was why I had to break up the chapter. It's a direct continuity from the last one, so...yeah.**

**I think you all know what's coming next chapter.  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**I...completely threw away history. Don't even try to compare. In reality, the English and French came at near the same time, and Sweden was there, and the Nordics-But shhh, artistic license. **

* * *

A year later, Gaho was whisked away from Helaku. It was in broad daylight, and under Helaku's horrified gaze, she disappeared and reappeared in time to see a man touch her soil with his foot, jumping out of a longboat.

He was golden-haired like France - pale like him too - and had green eyes. Green eyes like the demon. His brows were heavy and as he stared at her, she felt dread crawl up her spine. She gripped a branch for support. He seemed younger, less sure of himself, and more innocent. France had seemed harmless. Now France had Canada.

As he stretched out a hand to do-something, she didn't know- she disappeared to Helaku. He had still been staring at the place she'd disappeared. When she reappeared, he threw himself forward and hugged her knees.

"D-Don't do that again!" he cried. Gaho patted him on the head.

"Of course not, little one."

* * *

Helaku's memories started to fall away like downy feathers from a young bird. Suddenly he gave the signs Kajika had shown-confusion, suddenly staring east.

Gaho did her damndest to destroy the colony at Jamestown-but in vain. Her people no longer knew who she was. Even though they knew she was an _other_, they turned away. They helped the colonists.

Another batch of Englishmen (that's what they called themselves) landed at what they called Plymouth. Gaho, straining herself to the very limits with tending to her people and caring for Helaku and trying to drive off the foreigners that Helaku

Slipped

Through.

His hair became blonde.

When she saw him, Gaho screamed. "_No!"_

She fell to her knees, ran her hands through Helaku's hair as if trying to stain it ink-black like it used to be.

"_No! No! No!_" Crying, screaming, Gaho cursed the gods, and then the foreigners, the black-hearted devils.

Suddenly her heart, which had been steadily cracking throughout Canada's change, shattered. It was enough that one child had been taken away, but both? Were the gods so cruel?

"Gaho! Please, don't-" cried Helaku, hanging on to her, shuddering. Gaho saw the raw fear in his eyes. His worst nightmare was coming true-he would be separated.

Then, he stopped shaking. His hands came back from around her waist. He looked up at her uncomprehendingly.

"_Who are you? Are you okay?_"

She stumbled away.

Helaku kept looking at her with those big, horribly vacant eyes.

"_Who are you?_"

Gaho quickly wiped her eyes.

"_S-stay. I bring clothes._" she stuttered out in broken English.

Helaku beamed.

"_Sure!_"

She bought the white nightgown, blue ribbon, and loincloth. The woman who sold them spat at her feet, cursing her.

Gaho felt like screaming at the woman, _I have lost my last son!_ _He will never remember me! He will forever be doomed to be foreign in his own land!_

Instead, she quietly thanked her and slipped out of the door, making her way back to Helaku.

No.

What was it that that man had called this place?

_America.

* * *

_

When the Europeans finally found him, they bickered. Gaho, perched in a tree, had to bite her lip to keep from screaming profanities, or crying, or throwing something at them as they compared themselves to America.

Dully, she kept her vigil until finally England won out. Seeing the innocence and joy on her son's face, Gaho retreated into the trees, never looking back. 


	7. Chapter 7

**I want you all to do something. First, copy this into a new tab:**_ http : / / www . youtube . com / watch? v=ptsooXyCwh4. _**Then I want you to pause it and re-read the fic from the top (if you haven't read it straight through). As soon as you've finished this chapter, play the song and just listen to it. Close your eyes and drink it in. That's the feeling I want to evoke.  


* * *

**

"Who are you?"

Canada felt like banging his head against the tabletop. Or maybe Kumajirou's.

"Ca-na-da." he said slowly, enunciating every syllable. He flicked his eyes back to the pancake he was making, rubbing the bridge of his nose. For some reason, his glasses had been giving him trouble lately.

Kumajirou seemed oddly persistent today, and kept asking him.

"Who?"

"Ca-na-da. The guy who feeds you."

"Who?"

This was getting ridiculous. Even on the bad days, Kumajirou wasn't usually this forgetful.

Canada flipped the pancake on his plate and started pouring maple syrup on. Then he went to the fridge for butter.

"Who?"

Oh, honestly. A man has to make a stand sometime.

Canada slammed his hand down onto the table and stared Kumajirou straight in the eyes.

"I. Am. Canada. I have ALWAYS been Canada. You. Stupid. Polar. Bear."

Kumajirou looked straight back at him. He placed his paw on Canada's hand.

"No." he said quietly. "You didn't used to be."

"Wha-?" Canada stared at the bear. Then he dropped his butter, which landed in a very un-satisfying splat on the floor.

He _knew._

_A young Native American woman standing in a snowbank, beckoning_

_Grass plains rippling, Helaku was pelting him with_

"_I'm having trouble, help me with this." A brown hand, his brown hand, helped untangle the_

_Gaho pointed out the juicier blackberries, Helaku took_

_Gaho was patting him_

_Howling at the sky filled with stars and the desert_

_Matoskah leading him and Helaku to safety as Spain_

"_-can't remember-"_

_Raven tears falling on his face_

_Matoskah? No, he's_

"Kumajirou." breathed Canada.

He looked up at Canada.

"Who?" he asked.

"Ka...ji...ka..."

* * *

Through the curling mists of Time, I sit on my porch. I am an old, old woman. The people here feed me, let me out to stare endlessly through the desert and the sky and the mountains, and then put me to bed. They don't know who I am. They just know I'm the old biddy who won't die. There's a kind of respect they have for me.

I know what I'm staring at, even if they don't. Some days, I'm living my memories again, and two chubby boys are racing up the stairs and crawling into my lap, laughing. Some days I'm young again, and it's only when I come crashing to the wooden patio floor that I remember that was a long time ago. Sometimes I can see clearly and I softly weep, tears dribbling off my chin and into my lap.

One day, they'll come back to me. And until that day comes, I will stay on this lonely porch and watch the Raven soar on the wind, stealing my heart with it.


End file.
